Senate Panel Debates Taping Of Copyright Music

A Senate subcommittee yesterday urged inventors to help solve the problem that they helped to create in the home taping of copyrighted music, but a trade coalition denied that any problem exists.

The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks yesterday heard from technicians, artists and retailers on the pros and cons of S. 1739, a bill that legalizes the home taping of copyrighted music and other audio materials in exchange for a royalty on the tools used to make those copies.

Advancing technology is impairing the effectiveness of the nation's copyright law, according to Maryland GOP Sen. Charles McC. Mathias, subcommittee chairman. Consumers who copy copyrighted materials as a matter of course deny royalties legally due the artists and producers involved in the original work, he explained.

"American copyright law has often evolved in response to technological developments," Mathias said. "Congress has usually found itself playing catchup to new technology. Today, we ask whether the inventors can work with the Congress so that copyright holders will not be harmed by thehome taping phenomenon."

Dr. Donald S. McCoy of the CBS Technology Center yesterday showed the subcommittee that technology can help to solve the problem.

McCoy demonstrated a copy-coding system developed by CBS which is effective on every recording medium and method of electronic transmission.

The system has two elements: the encoder and the decoder. The encoder is a small, electronic device that can encode any master recording by intermittently removing tiny slivers of sound high in the frequency spectrum. The decoder is an integrated circuit, or chip, built into the recording mechanism of future models of audio recorders.

When the recording mechanism is switched on, the decoder scans the music, looking for the encoded notch, which would be present only in uncopiable versions of copyrighted recordings. When the notch is detected, the decoder inhibits the recording function of the machine for 25-second intervals. A copy taped from an "uncopiable" recording would consist of brief portions of music interrupted periodically by segments without sound.

CBS, according to McCoy, has pledged to license both the encoder and the decoder on a royalty-free basis for all hardware and software applications. The copy-coding system, he added, can be adapted to all existing technologies and can be applied to new formats.

Mathias said Congress has never looked at this method of protecting intellectual property.

"While I welcome the scrutiny that an idea like this deserves and trust that we are going to learn that, 'All that glitters is not gold,' I cannot help but be intrigued by a technological solution to the home taping problem," he said.

S. 1739, the Home Audio Recording Act, would not require those who manufacture the audio recording devices to include the decoder in their equipment, Mathias explained. The bill would provide manufacturers with the option of paying a royalty on machines or avoiding the royalty by including a decoder.

"It fosters a marketplace solution so that only those who tape pay for the privilege of doing so," he added.

But Charles Ferris of the Audio Recording Rights Coalition told Mathias and other subcommittee members that the legislation and the technological "fix" would deprive consumers of rights they have enjoyed for years, would impose a double tax on consumers and would interfere with the hardware and software markets.

"Home taping is legal," Ferris insisted. "The proponents of the Home Audio Recording Act are trying to change the law. The copyright laws continue to maintain a fair balance between the public's access to creative works and the artists' needs for continued incentives for creativity."

The coalition that Ferris represents includes such corporate members as 3M, Tandy, General Electric, Sears, Memtek and Sony.

The record companies, in promoting the Senate bill, are attacking the very people who have helped them prosper - hardware manufacturers and record buyers, according to Ferris.

But Jack Golodner, speaking on behalf of the AFL-CIO, National Music Publishers Association and the Recording Industry Association of America, urged Congress to enact S. 1739.

"The Japanese equipment manufacturers have shown no willingness to help the American music community find a solution to the home taping problem," Golodner said. "They are selling millions of machines and hundreds of millions of blank tapes ever year, products designed and promoted so that their customers can own the music we sell without paying for it."

The subcommittee yesterday also explored how to distribute royalties generated by the Senate bill.

Mathias said he hopes to prepare the bill for a subcommittee vote this summer.